ROAD BUDDIES

Yesterday afternoon we took a short trip to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, to see Jake and Nancy Jacobs, friends we met at the Rose Bowl rally. They just returned a couple weeks ago from about 70 days in Alaska and Canada, and Don had many questions for them. They shared their pictures, stories, hints and interesting acquisitions. We saw their freezer shelf of halibut that they caught, two chunks of glacier ice that Nancy picked up walking on a glacier, and the diamond willow sticks that Jake is making into walking sticks, which cost $100 in Alaska when finished. An interesting and fun afternoon!

Jake, showing us one of the willow sticks that he already removed the bark, but still needs to scrape the diamond areas, sand it, and apply at least six coats of lacquer.

Jake, Nancy and Lady Liberty, better known as Libby, in front of their RV. Notice the cheesehead hat on the mirror-they're natives of Wisconsin, Jake is from Green Bay!

FUTURE PLANS

Today we arrived in Red Wing, MN and will stay north for about a week, and probably will be in Decorah in a few days. We want to see our friends that just returned from Alaska, if we can find them. Then it's back to Omaha for the dentist. Jenna was just chosen for the middle school volleyball team, so we'll return by the 9th to watch her. Being grandparents is great!

Two of these buses passed us yesterday on their way to Minneapolis-the coffee group will understand that Don wished he had a rock!

ANOTHER PASSAGE IN LIFE

We had a neat experience Friday night-another passage in life. Our oldest grandchild, Jake, a sophomore, played center in the 4th quarter of his first varsity football game for the Burke Bulldogs. Boy, time flies-seems like only yesterday we were watching his father play the same position for the Grinnell Tigers. Back then I remember thinking that the other teams were huge-bodily and in numbers of players. (When our boys started playing, we played teams like Ankeny, until they changed the districts.) When Jake's team entered the field, I finally felt like our team was part of the French Foreign Legion-70 strong and some guys were huge! Don noticed that #58 had a belly like his. Burke won 41-0-that's with three TD's called back and the coach sacrificed another, so he wouldn't run up the score. We're enjoying watching all three boys play, and Russ coach, but this one made us feel older!

See all those guys!

Jake, #60, practicing on the side lines before entering the game.

In action!

His proud parents, Russ and Carrie, and youngest brother, Joe.

LAKE MANAWA

We drove up to Omaha, actually Council Bluffs, on Sunday, and have spent time with Russ' family and had a "lovely" visit with the new dentist. On September 10th, he's going to do a procedure lasting 3-4 hours, which I'm sure will be" just delightful". I'm going to sleep through it-thank God! Every time I asked about complications (I'm good at those!), or misery afterwards, he kept saying he thought I'd be disappointed. At the top of my prayer list is a huge request to be disappointed! I could handle that just fine!

During the waiting time, we're going to 3 football games and then planning on heading north for about a week, and may even get to Decorah for a few days.

I did want to share with you a little of the current beauty here at the lake. The water lillies are in bloom, but the only way to get a picture is from the rear without a boat. We thought these were even pretty.

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CATHEDRAL

We went to Mass this afternoon at the Cathedral, which had beautiful windows and was in a lovely restored downtown neighborhood full of condos. Now we can leave earlier tomorrow for Omaha, for my dreaded dental appointment on Tuesday. We are looking forward to Jake, Dan and Brian's football games. It will be fun to see how their father (Russ), does as Brian's head coach. Jake just started his sophomore year, but has been moved up to first string varsity. It seems like only yesterday we were attending Russ and Scott's games. I guess that we're proof positive "that time flies when you're having fun"!!!

STEAMBOAT ARABIA

Kathy Fitzgerald told us about this museum which cost $11.50, but was worth every penny. The Steamboat Arabia sunk in the Missouri River in 1856, but years later the river changed course, and it ended up being buried in a cornfield. It was buried for 132 years, but its evacuation in 1988 uncovered a "time capsule" of remarkably preserved supplies of all types from clothes to dishes to hardware, and even food. Most of the passengers on the steamboat were women and children going to join their husbands, and they were all saved. The only casualty was a mule which has been named "Lawrence-of Arabia". Besides getting to see all the preserved contents of the boat, you learn the story of the recovery process, done by three men and their families, none of which had any experience. They've passed up great wealth by not selling any of the contents, and have set up a foundation to keep the museum in Kansas City. They still figure it will take ten more years to restore the rest of the contents. It's an amazing story!

CITY MARKET

This morning we went downtown to the City Market, which consists of 140 booths selling flowers, vegetables, fruits, baked goods, gifts, food and even birds. It's one of the best we've been to, even better than Minneapolis. (Sorry, Scott!)